Behind Closed Doors? & Goodell Suggests No Kickoff in Time Mag

In March, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin declared his intention to hold hearings on the NFL bounty scandal. The proposed hearings were supposed to include the NBA, NCAA and Major League Baseball, in a more encompassing discussion about concussions and sports.

But it was clear that Sen. Durbin's target was the NFL.

Three months later, after a private meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell -- poof, no hearings.

Here is what else is better: Three months later, in September, the NFL announced it was donating a record $30 million to the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health -- an organization created by Congress to raise private funds and create public-private partnerships to support the National Institute for Health -- for research into concussion injuries.

Durbin is an influential member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, which oversee NIH, and has been a major NIH supporter in Congress.

And so here we are in December with Gregg Williams finally in Washington to testify the way the NFL likes it -- behind closed doors.

re: Behind Closed Doors? & Goodell Suggests No Kickoff in Time Mag(Posted by UVa JD 1987 on 12/4/12 at 11:54 am to blueslover)

Thanks for posting this Blues. Sad to see this only briefly mentioned in the media...and that that mention come from a Washington newspaper. Where is the New Orleans media on this? Why did it take the Los Angeles Times to do the research to show that the rate of injuries caused by the Saints during the alleged existence of "Bountygate" did not support any allegations that the Saints were, in fact, seeking to injure other players??? SeeThe Saints ain't sinners - www.latimes.com/.../la-oe-hassett-saints-bounty-program-20120715.

re: Behind Closed Doors? & Goodell Suggests No Kickoff in Time Mag(Posted by UVa JD 1987 on 12/4/12 at 12:00 pm to blueslover)

Seriously though...does anyone have any theories as to why the NOLA press has been so negligent about this? Aside from committing actual journalism, just think how many more papers they would sell? Why don't they like money?

According to TIME, Goodell recently discussed with Rick McKay, Falcons president and head of the NFL’s competition committee, a radical rule change proposed by Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano. Instead of a kickoff, the team that scored would then take the ball on its own 30-yard line in, essentially, a 4th-and-15 situation. In other words, they could attempt to keep their offense on the field and try to pick up 15 yards, at the risk of turning the ball over on downs; or they could punt.

“I don’t do things for public relations,” Goodell said. “I do things because they’re the right thing to do, because I love the game.” LINK